How painful labour

In the States, women usually think that the childbirth is extremely painful and that is why they are very scared when it comes to delivery. There are some facts revealed about the experienced level of pain during delivery.

How painful is childbirth?

Studies showed that pain during childbirth can vary among different women. 25% of women who had their first child characterized the pain as extremely painful and terrible, while 11% of women who had previous experience in childbirth said the same. About 17% of women said that they did not feel high levels of pain during delivery. Also, those women who had some previous physical trauma have the tendency to characterize delivery as less painful. That is because they have already felt excessive pain and they can compare delivery pain with previously experienced pain. It actually means that the assessment of pain level depends on various factors. Women will characterize delivery as extremely painful if it is their first childbirth, if they don’t know anything about childbirth, if they are of young age, if they had problems with their periods, or miscarriage, if they are scared and feel anxiousness about delivery, if they had psychological problems, and if their partner is not supportive about pregnancy.

How to cope with the pain?

Future mother will feel less pain during the delivery if she is confident that she can handle it just fine. Also, the kindness of the people who are present during the delivery is of high importance. Doctors and nurses who are there should be very supportive and that will relieve the pain of childbirth. Studies showed that those women whose birth attendants were kind, supportive and encouraging felt less pain. Opposite to that, those women who had bad treatment by doctors and nurses had more difficulties with delivery.

There are assistants who are present during the childbirth and who give all the support that the mother needs. Those assistants are called doulas. Their job is to do everything to help the mother to cope with the pain and that can include back massage, giving advice to the partner on what to do or what to say. When doulas are present, mothers are more confident and have less difficulty during labor.

Good birth experience is possible even if it is painful

Studies showed that the mothers who didn’t want to receive anesthesia were in pain, but despite that, they were more satisfied with their delivery not only right after giving a birth, but even after one year. Those women who used epidurals were less satisfied with their labor.